Daniel Adamson
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Daniel Adamson (30 April 1820 – 13 January 1890) was a notable English engineer who became a successful manufacturer of boilers and was the driving force behind the inception of the Manchester Ship Canal project during the 1880s.
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[edit] Early life
Adamson was born in Shildon, County Durham, on 30 April 1820. He was the thirteenth of fifteen children – seven boys and eight girls – born to Daniel Adamson, landlord of the Grey Horse public house in Shildon (now called The Surtees Arms), and his wife, Ann. Adamson was educated at Edward Walton Quaker school, Old Shildon, until the age of thirteen, when he left to become an apprentice to Timothy Hackworth, engineer to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, with whom he went on the serve as a draughtsman and engineer. By 1850, he had risen to become general manager of the Stockton engine works, and moved to become manager of Heaton Foundry in Stockport.[1]
[edit] Business
In 1851, at Newton Moor near Dukinfield, he established an iron works, Daniel Adamson and Co, specialising in engine and boiler making. Initially, he followed designs created by Hackworth, but he improved the design and manufacturing process (pioneering the use of steel and taking out 19 patents in the process) over the next 36 years, exporting "Manchester Boilers" worldwide, and building a business, the Newton Moor Iron Works, which by 1890 employed some 600 people.
Adamson's other business interests included a mill building company in Hyde ('The Newton Moor Spinning Company'), the Yorkshire Steel and Iron Works at Penistone, the Northern Lincolnshire Iron Company at Frodingham, and large share-holdings in iron works in Cumberland and south Wales.
[edit] The Ship Canal project
Adamson was a champion of the Manchester Ship Canal project. He arranged a meeting at his home ('The Towers', in Didsbury) on 27 June 1882, attended by 68 people including the mayors of Manchester and surrounding towns, leaders of commerce and industry, banker and financiers. Also present at the meeting was the canal's eventual designer Edward Leader Williams.[2] Adamson was elected chairman of the provisional committee promoting the Ship Canal, and was at the forefront in pushing the scheme through Parliament in the face of intense opposition from railway companies and port interests in Liverpool. The requisite Act of Parliament enabling the canal was finally passed on 6 August 1885, after which Adamson became the first chairman of the board of directors of the Manchester Ship Canal Company – a post he held until February 1887. As a result of his resignation, the first sod was cut by his successor, Lord Egerton of Tatton, the following November.[3]
Adamson remained a strong supporter of the project but did not live to see its completion in 1894. He died at home in Didsbury on 13 January 1890. Daniel Adamson and Co remained a family business until 1964, when it was sold to Acrow Engineers Ltd.
[edit] Memorials
There are blue plaques at 'The Towers' (today the Shirley Institute), Wilmslow Road in Didsbury, and in Adamson Street, Dukinfield. Also in Dukinfield, St Luke's Church has a stained glass window in his memory. The Adamson Military Band was also named after him.[4]
The Daniel Adamson Coach House has been preserved in Shildon.
A former Manchester Ship Canal Company steam-powered tug-tender, The Daniel Adamson (originally named The Ralph Brocklebank but renamed in 1936) is being restored by The Daniel Adamson Preservation Society.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- Farnie, D. A. (1980). The Manchester Ship Canal and the rise of the Port of Manchester. Manchester University Press. ISBN 071900795X.
- Owen, David (1983). The Manchester Ship Canal. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0864-6.
